Global immunization vision and strategy
By 2010: To ensure that every country reaches at least 90 per cent national vaccination coverage and at least 80 per cent vaccination coverage in every district or equivalent administrative unit; to reduce measles mortality globally by 90 per cent compared to the 2000 level. By 2015: To sustain vaccination coverage goal reached in 2010; to reduce morbidity and mortality due to vaccine-preventable diseases by at least two thirds compared to 2000 levels; to ensure that every person eligible for immunization has access to vaccines of assured quality; to ensure that the entire eligible population has access to new vaccines within five years of the introduction of these vaccines in national programmes; to ensure capacity for surveillance and monitoring; to strengthen national systems and to assure their sustainability.
WHO/UNICEF: Immunization Summary - A statistical reference containing data through 2008 [PDF]
The challenge
Immunization, one of the most important and cost-effective public health interventions, has saved over 20 million lives in the last two decades and protected countless children from illness and disability. It is an affordable means of protecting whole communities and of reducing poverty.
Immunization coverage for the six major vaccine-preventable diseases – pertussis, childhood tuberculosis, tetanus, polio, measles and diphtheria – has risen significantly since the Expanded Programme on Immunization began in 1974. In 1980, DTP3 coverage was estimated at 20 per cent of the world's children immunization in the first year of life; it had increased to an estimated 82 per cent by the end of 2008. Polio is on the verge of eradication. Deaths from measles, a major killer, declined by 74 per cent worldwide and by 89 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa between 2000 and 2007. Immunization against tetanus has saved hundreds of thousands of mothers and newborns, and only 44 developing countries (as of October 2009) still need to eliminate the disease altogether.
Immunization coverage has still not realized its potential, however, leaving millions of children unprotected. Vaccine security is fundamental to meeting immunization goals, and long-term funding remains a serious issue as neither developing country governments nor the international community have made firm commitments.
The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) has developed financial sustainability plans for countries eligible for support. But mobilizing and securing adequate funding will also require stronger political will, better management and greater advocacy.